The About Me/About Us page on a website is often the hardest page to write, yet can be one of the most visited pages on every website. The struggle is often not knowing about the interesting aspects of your business (or ourselves) to write about but to know how to make it engaging for our customers.
It is usually the final page the potential new customer reads, that will help them decide whether they have seen and read enough on your website, and decided to engage your business services or to buy your product or to contact you for further information. So, it’s necessary to get the content right.
There is a delicate balance between trying to sell yourself to your customer and driving them away by having a too self-centered approach. Here are a few suggestions to make your About page popular, and a pleasure to read.
It’s not about you – it’s about them
It might seem unusual to not start your About page by describing your business and your personal story, but consider writing this page from your customers perspective.
- In your first few sentences, focus on the issue/s your customers have come to your website to solve. Think about the reasons they may have arrived on your website and explain how you intend to meet those needs.
- Include facts which may help promote and describe how successful your business is. Perhaps you could mention the number of projects you delivered last month. It’s hard to disagree with raw numbers.
Let them do the talking
Whether you are looking for a new dentist or trying to find a good mechanic, usually you wouldn’t solely base your decision on what these professionals say about themselves, but instead you might ask others for their advice and recommendations on who they go to.
Share a few glowing testimonials on your About page from your customers that describe their genuine appreciation and experience with you. Use their commendations as confidence boosters to confirm to your new customers that they are in the right place.
- Remember a genuine, authentic testimonial should include the customers name, and in their own words; their experience of your business. If you have their permission, ask them for a photo of themselves to publish alongside their testimonial. This helps to establish trust in your business.
- Has your business received some special accreditation or customer-focused award/commendation or recognition? Perhaps your business had to go through some special accreditation process or belong to a certain industry-standard that your business must register with. Maybe you were voted as the best brunch café in your area. Whatever recognition that you have received, use these as endorsements for your business.
Include a variety of multi-media
Your About page can be visually interesting through using a variety of different forms of multi-media. Consider using more than photos, perhaps ask a graphic designer to create an eye-catching infographic or draw up a timeline which shows your company’s key milestones to try and capture your customer’s attention. An alternative is to publish a short video, but if your video is not of a sufficient high quality, then stick with using images instead.
- If you are intending to include photos of people who work in your business, instead of the standard head and shoulders type of image, use an action oriented shot which shows you and your team doing routine tasks in their job or talking with your customers. The purpose behind this style of image, is it adds a certain character and creates a sense of authenticity on your website.
- Short videos are another excellent entertaining method for quickly delivering information about your business. They can quickly evoke a certain feeling and captures your quirky personality in a matter of seconds or minutes rather than potential customers reading a long page of text. For those people who have short attention spans and not a lot of time, they won’t be put-off your business if you publish a short video if told in an entertaining, yet informative way.
Share your story
All businesses have started with small beginnings and it’s enjoyable to read where and how a business started. Focus on the aspects of the story that make it human. There is something genuine, hearing how a company began and over time grew and developed into what it is today.
- Try not to feel embarrassed or ashamed of where your business came from. It’s often the stories that start with: “It all began in my parents garage….” or “Our first shop was no bigger than 50 square feet and we opened up in….”. These genuine stories speak more to the heart of your customers than a well-rehearsed marketing spiel that resonates with nobody.
- You don’t need to share a blow-by-blow account of everything in your business if you have been running it for a number of years or it has passed through many family generations. Instead focus on the human-interest element in order to tell a good story. Your About page captures the imagination of your customers if you share nuggets of your businesses history.
Write simply and conversationally
Remember, people have come to this page to learn, in simple unambiguous language, what it is that you do. Using acronym-infested language and technical terms used only by those in your industry alienates people, they won’t understand what you are talking about and will leave your website feeling confused and uninterested.
- Write in a conversational, engaging tone. The words you use will depend on your business, but make the effort to write sentences which sound friendly and accessible to your customers. Try to make it an enjoyable page to read.
- Name your page what is: an ‘About Me or Us’ page or ‘About (business name xyz)’ rather than ‘Our Journey’ or something equally esoteric and unusual. Search engines and potential customers are not looking for anything vague and ambiguous.
Ensure it accurately reflects your business
Keep in mind the About page needs to have the same design and look as the rest of your website, so ensure it accurately reflects your business.
- Even if your websites’ design does not use a range of images or bold headings, maintain a consistent size, shape and color contrast. This consistent theme needs to accurately applied throughout your website, in your off-line market branding as well. In fact, everywhere your business is mentioned. This automatically establishes your business as having a certain authority and credibility.
- The same goes for tone and use of language. Often a customer’s first experience is not necessarily through your website, they may have come across a tweet or Facebook post someone else has shared with them or found your business the old-fashioned way i.e. through the Yellow Pages.
Review regularly
A good About page is updated regularly – think of it as a constant work in progress.
- Tweak the odd sentence, add in new photos, remove other images, upload a new video – check your analytics for the volume of traffic that arrives on this page, look at the bounce rate and duration of each visit. Based on the analytics page data, review the content and amend accordingly.
- With all the regular tweaks you make to your About page, ensure the page loads quickly and is still accessible across multiple devices. It doesn’t make any sense spending time creating an amazing looking and functioning page if no one can open and read the page.
You don’t need to implement all of these ideas and suggestions. Pick one or two ideas which describes the way you feel best promotes your business. However customers have discovered your business, make your About page a meeting place which meets, greets and welcomes your new customers.
A successful About page is one of the most highly visited pages on a small businesses website – what story are you sharing with your customers?
